This working group is building a prototype system to combine elements of choice modeling, ecosystem modeling, and interactive multiplayer games (and potentially overcome the limitations of each) to capture economic values people hold for alternative levels and qualities of ecosystem services. The system would involve an interactive gaming platform on top of an ecosystem simulation model that would allow individuals and groups to ‘play’ the system to create their version of the ‘best’ landscape. Various metrics would be tested to represent landscape outcomes in terms of ecosystem services for their resonance with game players. Since the model embeds the trade-offs between, for example, better ecosystem functioning and more population and urban land use, the choices the players make will reflect how they value these tradeoffs, in a dynamic way that will depend on initial conditions, and, in some games, interactions among players. This is like a conventional choice experiment, except that we allow the players to create their own scenarios, rather than presenting them with a fixed set and we allow preferences to emerge as a result of group interactions. By playing the game, they are also becoming informed about the trade-offs in a much more tangible way than simply telling them about them. The system thus connects the best of choice experiments, social interaction, and dynamic modelling. By recording each player’s behavior in the system, we can also use the results to build computer agents that behave more like real people. Ultimately, we would like the system to evolve to one that would be extremely engaging and can be played by many people simultaneously over the web.

Principal Investigator:
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Workshop Report

The Workshop was held from the 9-13 December 2013, and a report has been published in the TERN newsletter December 2013 edition of this group...actual workshop report to follow.

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